Board Game Mode

This page acts as a subpage to Kishin Douji Zenki 3 - Tenchi Meidou, the third SNES game in the series.

The Board Game Mode is one of two gameplay modes, the other one being the Battle Mode.

Tenchi Meidou's Board Game Mode generally acts as some kind of overworld, which is traversed in an attempt to fulfill certain objectives or reaching a certain destination. As doing so is often impeded by enemies and the terrain, the player is also able to use spells to manipulate the terrain to defeat multiple enemies at once or move pieces of terrain to fit their needs.

Contents

 * 1. General notes
 * The basic mechanics of Board Game Mode:
 * 2. Basic Mechanics
 * This section covers the game's hud menus and how to use them
 * 3. Death Notes
 * Information on the consequences of characters dying ingame
 * 4. Tamed Monsters
 * How to tame monsters, give them orders, level them up and evolve them

General notes


Whenever you start a Stage, you will generally start it in Board Game Mode. In this mode you will mainly play as Chiaki. From the second stage onwards, Chibi Zenki will also follow you around on the overworld. Chiaki can perform various actions to travese the overworld and successfully finish level goals.

Over the course of the game, the player's party will be joined by the following characters: Miki Souma, Anju, Goki, the Inugami Roh and Chimaru.

While Chibi Zenki is restricted to follow Chiaki and will only be in action when they enter a Battle Mode battle, all of the other party members can both move and act on the overworld as well as fighting in battles.

Luckily the sections of the stages where the player is limited to Chiaki don't feature enemies, so those small segments are more like actual puzzle sections.

Whenever Chiaki and Chibi Zenki enter a battle, Zenki will be instantly turned into his Demon God form (sadly Tenchi Meidou lacks a Vajura-On-Ark cutscene) and will be equipped with the Diamond Axe, allowing him to use it whenever he stacks up three light cards.

Basic Mechanics
This section explains some hud icons and basic mechanics of the Board Game Mode.

Basic Layout=

Board Game Hud

 * -|Main Hud Menu=

The main hud menu


The main hud menu is what you first see when opening the hud menu. It allows you to choose from four basic actions that can be taken.

The first one features a dice, which needs to be rolled to access the sub hud menu and perform actions from it.

Obviously there are still three icons left. These three icons from the main hud menu can be used without rolling the dice and are useful for checking your surroundings before taking any other action.

Visit the Dice-section if you want to know more about the dice, if you want to check out the other three icons, scroll down to the Information Icons-section instead.

Dice
A six sided dice.

On the start of every turn, you will have to roll the dice.

It will show a number from 1 to 6 in dots. A greater number allows you to move that number of tiles or perform greater magical actions. Thus a greater number could be generally considered a good thing, but your foes also roll the dice on their turn.

It could be said that that Tenchi Meidou players are required not only to have a basic understanding of Japanese, but also some luck to be successful at the game.

The sub calls this menu option サイコロ (Saikoro), which translates to "dice".

Information Icons
These icons can be used to show information on specific tiles or objects:


 * [[File:Spell Info Tenchi Meidou.png]] Spell information
 * This one informs you about the spells currently affecting the selected tile.
 * The sub calls this menu option こうげき術 (Kō geki-jutsu), which translates to "traditional arts" or "traditional techniques".
 * [[File:Monster Info Tenchi Meidou.png]] Monster information
 * This one informs you about the characters located on the selected tile.
 * The sub calls this menu option 使役獣 (Shiekijū), which translates to "domesticated beast" or simply put a "pet".
 * [[File:Tile Info Tenchi Meidou.png]] Tile information
 * This one informs you about the selected tile's basic effects and non-character objects located on it.
 * The sub calls this menu option ステータス (Sutētasu), which is a direct loanword from the English tounge. It simply means "status".


 * -|Sub Hud Menu=

The sub hud menu


The sub hud menu is what you see after rolling the dice and gaining a corresponding anmount of action turns to the number you rolled.

Just like the main hud menu, the sub hud menu features three icons. These three icons allow the player to access their collected items via the box, access their learned spells via the spell tags and move around the map via the walking feet.

Box
A box with items inside.

If you have collected any items on the overworld, they can be found here. Some items can be used infinitely, while others have only a limited anmount of uses (indicated by a small number beside the item).

If an "item" can't be found here, it might as well be a spell, which can be found in the next section.

The sub calls this menu option スライド (Suraido), which translates to "slide". This likely means, that its a box that is opened by a sliding mechanism, similar to a box of matches.

Healing
One of the items is the Hyouinomi, which is collected one at a time by defeating enemies. Monsters will drop an anmount of seeds corresponding to their level. These seeds can be used to feed "tamed monsters" or fully recover the currently selected characters health.

More about monster levels can be read in the Tamed Monsters-section.

Spell Tags
These tags are arranged like cards.

These are your learned spells. Some of these can be collected like items, while others are learned as you progress through the game.

At the beginning of the game, this section is empty, but you will soon learn a few basic spells, which are needed to complete your objectives.

While there are basic spells which can be used by any character, like moving tiles and using spells that place the tiles under effects like flooding them with water or lava, which make the tile impassable, or even generating fissures, which destroy the tile, there are also specific spells.

An example for a specific spell would be Goki using his Heavenly Shield to prevent foes to enter a radius of 8 tiles around him for the anmount of turns he rolled with his dice.

The sub calls this menu option いどう術 (I dō jutsu), which translates to "archery arts" or "archery techniques". In other words, this means, that this option is related to ranged attacks or ranged moves.

Walking Feet
Two feet making a walking motion.

This one is pretty obvious. If you choose the walking feet, you can move around the overworld by using up your moves. This will only work if you aren't stuck on a tile because your paths are blocked off. The latter can be done by the AI or other players, but you can do it to them as well (or screw up and trap yourself by sheer accident).

If you walk onto specific tiles, the following will happen:


 * A tile with a foe on it
 * Triggers a Battle Mode encounter
 * A tile with an item on it
 * You collect the item an can now select it from the Card Box
 * Level Goal (a shrine or sealed rock)
 * Causes you to successfully finish the stage

If the AI or another player messes with the tile you are on, the following can happen:


 * The tile was destroyed and you now stand in midair
 * You fall into the void below
 * The tile was flooded with water
 * If a "midair-tile" is close, you will be washed away and end up in the void again
 * If you don't fall into the void, you still take damage every turn you stay submerged
 * This only gets worse if you can't move because you are either trapped or surrounded by flooded tiles, forcing you to find a solution for your "problem" before your life points are reduced to 0
 * The tile was flooded with lava
 * This one kills you instantly

The sub calls this menu option あるく (Aruku), which simply translates to "walking".


 * -|Other=

Bowing Man
A bowing man wearing classic Japanese clothing.

After using up all your moves, gained from rolling the aforementioned dice (from the main hud menu), you will have no choice but to end your turn. You do this by selecting the bowing man and confirming the action.

If any foes or tamed monsters are present on the overworld, they will now take their turns. After that, it will be your turn again. That is unless you have been defeated or failed your stage objectives, of course.

The sub calls this menu option おわク (Owaku), which translates to "cowardly". Obviously, this means a "tactical retreat", though the world "cowardly" implies, that Zenki calls Chiaki a coward every time they end their turn this way, which is likely related to his claims from the anime and the manga, whenever he states, that he's not going to turn tail when facing a strong foe.

Death Notes
Main Game

It's pretty much obvious, but everything that makes you to fall in the void or reduces your currently controlled character's health to 0.

Once all your party members are dead or a objective critical member dies, you to lose. You now have to restart the stage from the beginning.

Multiplayer Game

In a multiplayer game, you will respawn shortly after dying.

Being defeated by another player will allow them one turn of controlling your character like their own character for one turn. After this, your character will return to normal.

It should also be mentioned, that this is only the case as long there are items left on the map. Once the last item has been collected the winner will be decided by the anmount of items they collected.

Tamed Monsters
Whenever the player defeats a foe, there's a 50/50 chance that the defeated foe will join the party. Though this will only be temporarily as the "tamed monster" can die just as any other character and will otherwise only be in your party for this one stage.

Tamed monsters can be fed Hyouinomi to level them up into stronger versions of themselves (or just recover their health) and can be given various orders.

The following section contains two major factors concerning tamed monsters. One is what orders you give them, while the other one regards their levels.

Orders=

Orders
The orders that can be given are as follows:


 * Stay
 * Makes the monster stay on a tile and guarding it and preventing foes from advancing unless they defeat it
 * Wander
 * Makes the monster walk around the map as it would do when no one is controlling it. It will pick up any item it comes across and fight any foe it meets.
 * Move to tile
 * A monster can be ordered to move to a tile. To do this, the player can roll the dice, which allow the monster to move the corresponding number of tiles.
 * If the monster arrives on a tile with an item, it will collect it, allowing it and other party members to use the item.
 * Attack
 * There are actually two follow up actions that can be selected.
 * Guard
 * The monster can be told to either stay in place and attack any enemy in a defined radius of tiles.
 * Advance
 * This causes the monster to advance towards a selected foe and has it attempt to fight the foe.
 * Sacrifice
 * Sacrifices the monster and gives the player an anmount of seeds correspondent to the monster's current level. This of cause kills the monster, taking it out of the game.
 * Eat
 * If a tamed monster eats another tamed monster or an item, it will evolve into a stronger species. This action can't be reversed, so the other monster or the item has to be chosen wisely.
 * It is possible to fail an objective by using too many seeds before meeting a specific section of the map where they are needed to use a spell.
 * Luckily this doesn't go for the items. Only non-objective critical items can be fed to tamed monsters.


 * -|Levels=

Monster levels
While the player can tame monsters, the monster also has a level related to its current evolutionary stage.

Here's an example how monster evolution works:

Mu Tsuto (Level 1) -> Shi Tsuyo (Level 2) ->   Gotochi (Level 3)

Whenever two monsters of the same level meet each other in battle (the player can't watch those battles), the game will randomly decide which one wins, making this rather luck based. But if a higher level monster met a weaker one, the weaker one always looses.

Monsters will only be able to turn into another species if they fuse with another monster or an item via the Eat-command. The player will now have one monster instead of two, but the new monster will start out with a higher base level.

All these monsters' levels and which monster beats which in battle between two species of an equal level, still need more research and might be added to the individual monsters in their enemy sections sooner or later.